FMP- Experiment with mono printing

I’ve recently been using alot of ink in my work and creating black and white pieces for my sets, these have a more contemporary feel to them and contrast the found objects nicely. I am now interested in creating them using monoprinting and just getting stuck into the printing process. I have been creating experimental monoprint illustrations of scene ideas for the “12 Dancing Princesses” in a darker and more loose style than i would normally, as i normally plan my scenes in very detailed pen/ pencil drawings but this allowed much more free expression and although they were only intended to be planning, i really liked how some of them came out:

this was the difference between using a pencil and a biro to create the monoprints- the biro gave sharper cleaner lines and i preferred the contrasts that were created by using biro as opposed to the soft pencil marks.

I was planning on creating elements for 3D scenes in this first experiment with monoprinting, but i decided to play around a bit more and created some mini illustrations of what i imagined some scenes to look like, i really liked the roughness of them because it totally contrasts the soft feminine view of how a fairytale should look. I am going to go back and try creating many more but on coloured paper to see if that changes the effect, and on a larger scale, as well as creating some 3D elements.

Below are some progress images:

Next below are the images i created of the scenes, captioned with a piece of the text:

But how did the girls get through SO many pairs of shoes?

The man watched as the girls entered a secret passage behind their mirror

They danced excitedly through a long passage of trees

There the princesses danced all night in their somewhat impractically delicate shoes

The man took the elderly womans advice- and gave the drinks from the princesses to a very unfortunate pot plant

Before him the princesses each entered boats and rowed across the lake to a grand building the other side

The girls room was messy like any others, with 12 beds ( not all pictured) and a large mirror on the back wall

How it relates to my FMP

These images are informal and experimental, but i like some of the lines and shapes emerging from working in such an expressive way. I’ve been very determined so far to create 3D works, but the 2D work i am creating whilst preparing for the 3D work shows some interesting results and i shouldn’t write these off immediately, i am going to experiment more with mono printing and 3D work to ensure i have a versatile and interesting body of work to represent this narrative 🙂